Comparative Literature

College of Arts & Sciences

  • Russian Culture: Literature, Film, and Arts (in English translation)

    CAS LR 289

    Introduction to the history of Russian culture from its beginnings to the 21st century. This course surveys main works of literature, painting, architecture, and film chronologically. It keeps relevant historical developments in sight, and investigates cause-effect links between history and culture. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

    Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

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  • Tradition and Modernity in Iranian Film and Literature

    CAS LZ 315

    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - This course examines how competing notions of tradition and modernity are presented in Iranian cinema by drawing on both classical and modern Persian literary works to draw out underlying connections between the readings and the films. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

    Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

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  • Topics in Big Fat Books: The Illiad

    CAS XL 230

    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120) - Homer's Iliad is the oldest work of Western literature. Across its three thousand years or more of life, the world around this song of heroes and gods has changed unrecognizably — changed not once but over and over in just about every respect. And yet most readers of the Iliad today come to feel that this epic has if anything gained, not lost, in relevance and power. To read this tale of the Trojan War remains an absorbing, sometimes thrilling experience; the art of the poem, sophisticated almost beyond belief for a work so impossibly ancient, is as rich in irony and humor as it is in pathos; but in some way the book also seems to matter. This is a work that can touch us personally, with undiminished power and emotion, as a kind of truth. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

    Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

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